days, by dinosaurs crossing the channel. The authors also found the shape variation of Skartopus and Wintonopus overlapped and were even preserved within the same individual trackway. With no significant difference in the form of the footprints, the authors attributed both Skartopus and Wintonopus were made by the same type of herbivorous bipedal dinosaur trackmakers. Whatever actually took place, not long after the incident, the water level began to rise, covering the tracks with sandy sediments before the mud had dried. The footprints were buried beneath sand and mud as the water levels continued to rise and fall. Over thousands of millennia, the rich river plain with sandy channels, swamps and lush lowland forest dried up. The sediment covering the footprints was compressed to form rock. Discovery and preservation The footprints were first discovered in the 1960s by station manager, Glen Seymour, in the nearby Seymour Quarry. Palaeontologists from the Queensland Museum, including Mary Wade and Tony Thulborn and the University of Queensland excavated Lark Quarry during 1976–77 (the quarry was named after Malcolm Lark, a volunteer who removed a lot of the overlying rock.) All together they removed more than 60 tonnes of rock, and uncovered about 210 square metres of the layer with the fossils. This shows about 3300 dinosaur footprints. A sheltering roof was built over the site but did not stop the gradual damage caused by exposure to the weather. The present Conservation Building that covers the trackways was constructed in 2002. This building protects the main collection of footprints from damage by stabilising temperature and humidity fluctuations, stops water running over the footprints and keeps people and wildlife off the footprints themselves. The Dinosaur Stampede National Monument was included in the Australian National Heritage List on 20 July 2004, for values of rarity and research. It has been claimed that the Lark Quarry tracks served as inspiration and "scientific underpinning" for the Gallimimus stampede scene in the film Jurassic Park; these tracks were initially interpreted as representing a dinosaur stampede caused by the arrival of a theropod predator. The idea that the tracks represent a stampede has since been contested, and a consultant to Jurassic Park has denied the tracks served as inspiration for the movie. See also List of fossil sites Protected areas of Queensland References External links Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways - official site Queensland Government tourist information about Lark Quarry Dinosaur trace